Reviews with content warning for Racism - The World We Make

great follow up to the first book. really engaging with some great character moments. some odd pacing and moments where it felt sections were missing but overall really good. the ending felt a little rushed .

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rhibeetle17's review against another edition

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adventurous hopeful informative tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

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escapades's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging hopeful mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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dreklogar's review against another edition

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dark hopeful inspiring tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

The author says that she originally wanted to write three books, and I could really feel that in the pacing. There were a fair amount of elements that I would have loved to see explored more in depth, so I am hoping that a lot of fanfiction comes out of the series!

Otherwise, the book was honestly horrifying at times. Things that happen to the characters just feel very real in a way that has little to do with the setting, and the fact that it's often magic that saves them creates an uncomfortable feeling of "What if this happens to me in the real world?". Overall, Jemisin's work usually leaves me pumped up to improve a flawed, but salvageable world, but this one mostly made me feel sad and despondent.

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takarakei's review against another edition

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adventurous slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

In the author's note N.K. Jemisin wrote that she had a hard time finishing this series (and switched it from a trilogy into a duology) because the things she wrote about in book 1 became reality. I can totally understand losing motivation, and indeed it was eerie to read about - it really did not seem like fiction.

Unfortunately the struggle was felt while reading. The pace of the book was a bit slow - not a lot happening from each character's pov until towards the end. It felt a little meander-y and I wasn't super engaged overall. The political storyline in particular I did not find super compelling. I did really enjoy the 'interruption' chapters that visited the other cities & really emphasizing just how young the US (and NYC) is. I found the ending to be a bit too tidy also. I really loved the first book, so it's a shame this one didn't quite meet that high bar.

These remain fantastic audiobooks, they really are almost like graphic audios with sound fx! If you're going to read this series and enjoy audiobooks I highly recommend those.

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mementomoriiv's review against another edition

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adventurous funny medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

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niakantorka's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

What a wonderful ending to this duology.

I loved to get back to these characters, especially Neek’s, Brooklyn’s and Padmini’s povs were super intriguing to me. Veneza, Bronca and Manny were good fun too. Admittedly, I still had the most trouble with Aislyn whom I found so whiny. Even R’lyeh was more compelling in her alienness than Aislyn in her pearl-clutching mediocrity. Yeah, sorry, she was from start to finish the only character I found seriously lacking and that was probably done on purpose. Same with most of the lackey villains who were so one dimensional which perfectly showed that they couldn’t even think for themselves and had to get the ‘help’ of R’lyeh‘s tentacles.

Another highlight were the cities we met here. Istanbul and London were so charming and made me laugh while Paris and Tokyo made me roll my eyes. The summit was definitely a great idea.

This book was equally fast paced than its predecessor but I was better prepared this time. A huge plus (in my opinion) was the ending: it didn’t contain multiple twists in a short amount of time. After many fights and lots of things happening it ended with huge bang and then it was done and the happily ever after could start. That that (the hea) wasn’t elaborated in great detail was also a plus for me as epilogues can be fickle things.

Honestly, this book was just perfect to me.

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radioisasoundsalvation's review against another edition

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adventurous funny reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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